


One More Time

by greygerbil



Category: Mass Effect: Andromeda
Genre: Established Relationship, M/M, Shower Sex
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-07
Updated: 2020-12-07
Packaged: 2021-03-10 06:47:51
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,046
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27919987
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/greygerbil/pseuds/greygerbil
Summary: Knowing that he will soon be introduced to Jaal's family as his partner is making Evfra more than a little nervous.
Relationships: Jaal Ama Darav/Evfra de Tershaav
Comments: 1
Kudos: 18
Collections: Mild Heart Attack 2020: Short Treats Collection





	One More Time

**Author's Note:**

  * For [tentacledicks](https://archiveofourown.org/users/tentacledicks/gifts).



“These trees over there are said to be as old as angaran civilisation itself. We could have lost them, though. My cousin lives in the daar close-by. She says it was impossible to keep them free from choking vines these last years. They grew back faster than they were cut. Now that the volunteers have time to catch up with the vines, the trees will live.”

Evfra raised his gaze along the mighty trunks to the wide-spanning treetops, which were so high up they were just barely outlined as shadows against the night sky, hardly reached by the white glow of the neon lights illuminating the small port. This place was still a couple of hours by speeder from Jaal’s home, but Jaal evidently knew this area of Havarl well, too, for he had been talking excitedly at Evfra ever since the Resistance ship had dropped them off here twenty minutes ago.

“I already booked a room for us,” Jaal continued, activating his multitool so it could interface with the door of the prefab container buildings that stood crowded against the landing platforms. “It’s a hotel unit without staff, but I figured we just needed a roof over our heads until the morning. We could have stayed at Fahaar’s – my cousin’s –, but it might be better if we visit some other time.” He grinned. “She raises her kids together with seven other mothers and their families and I know she’d insist on introductions, so we wouldn’t get any sleep.”

Evfra nodded his head, suddenly very grateful.

“I like this place,” Jaal said, as the door slid open. “There are always ships and speeders passing through and you have such a great view on the sky at night. When I visited my aunt at a child, I would often sit here with Fahaar in the evenings and we’d talk about going to the stars.”

“Didn’t the kett scare you off that thought?”

Evfra couldn’t remember a time when looking at the stars had made him think of anything but danger, and he was ten years older than Jaal.

“No. I thought they couldn’t be everywhere in the universe, after all.” He smiled playfully. “I was right, too. The aliens prove there is much more out there.”

After leading Evfra down a barren, unadorned corridor, Jaal unlocked another door with another code, this one opening to a narrow room with a broad bed. A window looked out to the port, where a freight speeder just heaved its bulky load away into the darkness, its taillights growing smaller and then vanishing in the underbrush.

Evfra placed their luggage down, two compact backpacks, testament to the fact that they were both soldiers who had long learned to travel light and couldn’t set aside the habit even when on leave.

“Is everything alright?” Jaal asked into the silence.

“Why wouldn’t it be?” Evfra asked, resisting the urge to pull up his own multitool and check his messages again. He’d told his people only to contact him in emergencies, but he’d broken his own rule about not checking regular messages several times on the flight to Havarl. Jaal would always tease him that he was bad at relaxing; Evfra thought it was fortunate, then, that Jaal was very good at distracting him.

“You’ve been quiet for a while now.”

“You had a lot to say. I liked listening.”

That much was not a lie, at least. He enjoyed it when Jaal was happy, and returning to a home that had pulled itself from the brink of devastation with the reactivation of the Vault, as well as the prospect of meeting his family, obviously had Jaal brimming with energy.

“Is that all?”

Jaal hugged Evfra to himself. Evfra could never figure out how much Jaal manipulated him on purpose. He did always have his hands all over him whenever he got the chance, for really no reason, but he probably also knew that his casual, warm affection, like nuzzling into the crook of Evfra’s neck like now, still pushed exactly the buttons that made Evfra relent.

“I was just thinking about tomorrow,” he said, his arms loosely draped around Jaal.

“What about tomorrow?”

“‘What about tomorrow’?” Evfra repeated, answering Jaal’s openly confused expression with an unimpressed glance. “I’m going to meet your whole family.”

Evfra remembered talking to a human APEX soldier once who had joked that since he had found a girlfriend in Andromeda, he was spared the apparently traditional meeting with her parents. Evfra had almost laughed, but for other reasons than the man might have guessed. In angaran culture, a partner who was considered a serious prospect was expected to make his introduction to as much of the family as could be collected, usually at a convenient gathering, like the Havarl harvest feast day tomorrow. This could easily involve a hundred or so people, who all had the right to inspect the newcomer and ask questions.

He’d been speechless when Jaal had asked him to come, to have final confirmation that he’d meant all his lover’s oaths over the last months, and had had to stop himself from smiling like a lovesick boy for the rest of that day. It didn’t meant that this wouldn’t be a gauntlet, though.

Jaal backed off a little so Evfra didn’t have to peer downwards to see his face.

“So?” Jaal smiled. “Are you nervous? You’ve met some of them through the Resistance already, even my true mother.”

“Back then, I didn’t meet her because I was sleeping with her son,” Evfra shot back. “This is different. I don’t have the best reputation, after all.”

“What are you talking about? You are the leader of the Resistance!”

“You know what I mean,” Evfra said, frowning. “They can admire my achievements, but at the same time not want _you_ to date a reticent loner.”

Evfra was well-aware that he was echoing his own feelings on the relationship, the treacherous thoughts that Jaal should have found someone more like himself, softer and friendlier. It didn’t mean he wasn’t right, though. Even Jaal, who was very quick with compliments, hesitated for a moment now, unable to deny what people said about Evfra’s character.

“It will be fine,” he settled. “I chose you, and I trust them to trust me. Besides, you came here. Doesn’t that prove most of what people say about you wrong?”

“Not yet. I could still spend tomorrow glowering at everyone and failing to make a single conversation,” Evfra threatened, but his words were half-swallowed by Jaal’s laughing mouth pressing against his.

“I know you won’t,” he said, after he broke the kiss.

No, he wouldn’t. He would try. Evfra just didn’t know if it would make a difference. He was not social, not charming, not warm, not like Jaal. Hopefully, Jaal was right that his family would see that his affection was true, even if he did not wear it as openly as most angara, and that he had no intentions of hurting Jaal, though he feared he did at times, anyways, because the years had made him so callous and sharp-edged.

“We should get some sleep,” he said, pressing the button by the window to make the screen turn on. The window shifted to a dark overlay, still allowing a shaded view outside, but giving them privacy in here. “The slowed plant growth should help to have a quiet night,” he added, talking to keep himself from falling back into useless circular worrying. “The last time I slept in a bed on Havarl, I couldn’t get up in the morning because a vine had gotten in through a crack in the floorboards and snaked around my ankle. I had to cut myself free with my firaan.”

Jaal chuckled. “That tended to happen out in the jungle, yes. Though now I’m a little unhappy I will not get such an opportunity...”

Jaal sounded cheerful, but judging by his attentive gaze, he was trying to gauge Evfra’s reaction to the joke.

“Why would need the help of plants?” Evfra asked blankly. “Does something prevent you from buying ropes?”

The wide-eyed, pink-faced stare told him Jaal had not expected the answer to be quite so blunt. Evfra allowed a brief smile. Sometimes, Jaal still had to be reminded that he was his boyfriend Evfra now, not Resistance leader Evfra, and that Jaal could suggest the same things to him he might have to any other lover. Besides that, Evfra admittedly liked making Jaal blush.

“I will take a shower,” Evfra announced, pulling off his multitool.

“Yes – sure.”

Still unduly amused by Jaal’s obvious distraction with the image he’d put in his mind, Evfra rummaged through his backpack for his soap and moved into the small cubicle of a bathroom, which barely had space left to stand between the shower, sink, and the toilet. He undressed and stuffed his clothes in the sink for want of another place to put them. A warm stream of water greeted him when he turned the tab and he simply let it run over his head for a moment, leaving the soap to sit on a small shelf by his side.

The door let in a rush of air. Evfra looked up and saw Jaal step into the bathroom, already naked. Evfra motioned him inside at his hopeful gaze.

“It’s barely big enough for one,” Evfra warned, shuffling to the side.

To make up for the lack of space, Jaal hugged Evfra tightly from behind.

“Still, I figured since we’re on Havarl, we could do this together for once.”

His tone was just slightly accusatory and Evfra felt the corner of his mouth twitch again. He liked to take cold showers, a matter of habit more than anything else. On Voeld, all available heating for the water pipes was usually spent keeping them from freezing shut, and heating up the water was considered an unnecessary luxury. On Havarl, cheap water pipes were, in turn, filled with warm water, since here energy would have had to be spent cooling it down.

“Don’t pretend I don’t turn up the heat now when you want to join,” Evfra pointed out. “Though I admit it was funny the first time you climbed into the shower with me and almost jumped five feet to get out again.”

Jaal made a face at him and bit gently at the folds of his head.

“Your ice water isn’t helpful for the things one could do when showering together,” he grumbled.

“I guess we better make use of this chance,” Evfra said laconically, reaching for the soap.

Jaal didn’t move immediately, but waited for Evfra to cover himself in it, the fresh smell of synthetic sunspice rising alongside the steam. He moved his hands over the slippery skin of Evfra’s body when he was done, spreading the soap further, his fingers going into the ridges over Evfra’s chest, down his stomach, between his thighs, running up and down his cock in a simple movement without flourish, as if he really was just looking to wash every part of him. Evfra reached back, running his soap-covered hand over Jaal’s thigh, as high up his side as he could reach. The unhurried movements took the tension he’d carried for days now out of his muscles, even as his cock grew hard in Jaal’s palm.

Jaal grabbed the soap now. When he’d started going out with Jaal, Evfra hard purposefully switched to a blend that happened to lend itself to more than just staying clean. He didn’t want to bring lube to all the places Jaal and him might end up fucking, since those were often Resistance buildings and ships and Evfra disliked gossip even more when it was about himself; but no one would be surprised to find basic toiletries in his bag if they happened to look at his belongings for some reason.

This need for secrecy would soon be moot. Jaal’s family had a great number of Resistance members. In two days, everybody would know that Evfra had taken up with one of his own lieutenants. Despite the fact that in an emotional people like the angara, fraternisation rules like APEX had would have been summarily ignored, Evfra still wondered if others would judge him for playing favourites and would wonder, like Evfra did, if he could be an even-handed commander to Jaal like this. All he had to say for himself was the he’d only given up and given in when he’d realised that even trying to talk to Jaal as little as possible, he had still been unable to treat him like any other soldier.

At least Jaal had a habit of putting himself into horrendously dangerous situations without even Evfra’s orders, though Evfra wasn’t sure he would count that as an advantage. Looking at the scar on his face where Aksuul’s bullet had grazed him still made Evfra’s blood run cold.

Jaal pulled Evfra away from the thoughts he’d been chewing on too much when he pushed his soap-slick cock between Evfra’s thighs. Reaching down, Evfra teased the tip for a moment, but widened his stance right afterward.

“Fuck me,” he ordered Jaal.

“Should I-”

“No.”

Jaal liked to be prepared well, which Evfra was very happy to do for him, but he himself wasn’t always in the mood for it and Jaal had started to believe him on that. From the quick exhale he heard behind him, Evfra figured he even found something alluring in the prospect of fucking Evfra quickly and roughly.

It was impossible not to concentrate on Jaal’s thick cock stretching him, an advantage when his thoughts were fleeing in all directions. Leaning his forehead against his arms folded on the wall, Evfra was glad to give himself over to the slow, deep rhythm. Jaal’s hands slipped on his wet skin at first and he clawed deeply into his hips to hold him steady. Evfra felt his cock jump.

He didn’t want either of them to fall on the wet tiles, so he did not move too much, but he pressed his ass back against Jaal to show him that he could go faster. Jaal chuckled as he ran his hand up Evfra’s spin to the tapered start of his head folds, but it was a breathless and somewhat desperate noise. He needed no other encouragement to follow the wordless suggestion.

Evfra dropped a hand to stroke himself because he liked Jaal’s hands where they were, one still pressing bruises into his hips and the other putting pressure between his shoulders, pushing him closer to the wall. They hadn’t had a moment to themselves like this in weeks, as Jaal had come from the Pathfinder’s ship straight onto the Resistance vessel that had brought them to Havarl. Jaal’s greedy, frantic movement inside him told Evfra he wouldn’t last long, but he didn’t care, soaking up the obvious need he felt from his lover, the sweet, breathless words and encouragements that Jaal always had for him.

Jaal spent himself inside Evfra, who shuddered as Jaal pumped his cock into him even faster, listening to Jaal’s deep, unrestrained moan. He hauled Evfra backwards when he was finished so they stood chest to back again and put his hand over Evfra’s, guiding him to speed up, then dropping his hand to cradle his balls, moving it again to leave more marks in the soft skin of his thighs. Evfra gritted his teeth as he came.

The shower washed the evidence of their tryst away before they were done kissing afterwards. Evfra moved a little to the side so that Jaal had an opportunity to use the soap for its actually intended purpose, but he remained close, shoulder-to-shoulder, wanting to feel Jaal’s body next to his.

They dried themselves with the coarse hotel towels and laid down on the bed together. Evfra felt pleasantly exhausted as he stared at the grey ceiling.

“Do you mind if we get up early tomorrow? I want to help my mothers prepare for the arrival of the other guests,” Jaal said, laying on his side to look at him.

“Of course we can,” Evfra said.

Jaal dragged his knuckles over Evfra’s ribcage.

“I did mean it, you know. You don’t have to worry about what they will think. They will like you.” Jaal chuckled. “You might have to field a few questions about grandchildren from my mothers, though,” he added apologetically.

“I’d question if your family were angara if I didn’t,” Evfra said with a pale smile.

Jaal knew why it might be a sore subject; after all, Evfra had had children.

Yet here he was. Perhaps that was the reason he couldn’t stop thinking about it, Evfra realised. He was worried that he was twisting the chain of command by dating Jaal, he did want to make a good impression on Jaal’s family, but the most daunting thought of all was that he was really about to do everything all over again. He’d not only have a lover, which was already something he’d ruled out long ago, but he’d let himself be pulled into a family, and one that he himself might even start expanding in a couple of years when Jaal had finished his run with the Pathfinder. It felt like seeing the high flames of a fire, feeling their searing heat, and preparing to stick his hand in, anyway.

Jaal watched him closely. “If they do ask, what should we say?” he asked.

“Be honest. Tell them what you want for us,” Evfra answered, not wholly without the urge to get up and run into the night.

However, as he turned his head to look at Jaal and saw the giddy joy on his face, he already knew there was no turning back.

“Are you sure?”

Evfra nodded his head. He already knew Jaal well enough to guess the broad strokes of his wishes and when it came to this matter, it was not the details that scared him.

“If you want to, you can tell me about it first so I know what I’m getting into.”

And as Jaal laid with his head on Evfra’s shoulder, talking to him of their future, Evfra knew that even if his decision was foolish, it was also right.


End file.
